Emotional Capital and Its Uses in Lithuanian Middle-Class Fathers’ Narratives

Abstract

The article examines Lithuanian middle-class fathers’ uses of emotional capital to learn which patterns of emotional engagement with children they employ in their fathering. Emotional capital is defined, in the article, as a type of interpersonal resource that consists of emotion-based knowledge and emotion-management abilities that can lead to social benefits. The 24 in-depth interviews with 35-to 48-year-old fathers show that males believe they are emotionally prepared to cope with their children’s concerns and challenges. The use of emotional capital is an attempt to strengthen their standing as fathers and gain pleasure. Emotional capital is activated by fathers regulating negative emotions and using positive emotions to speak with their children and form friendship bonds. Emotion-based knowledge, management abilities, and capacities to feel provide fathers with a sense of authority and pride. Importantly, in the interviews, it is indicated that men and women have similar emotional resources. Compared to their female partners or wives, men generally consider themselves capable of skillfully enacting emotional capital in their interactions with children.